Dialogue device.
Fundamental Device. — DIALOGUE. One of the most important devices in description is dialogue. It is perhaps more vivid and informal than any other, and may be used for the portrayal of any of the description-motives. A. MODEL. "Young man, I am painting a picture of Sinon deceiving old Priam, and I should be glad of your face for my Sinon, if you'd give me a sitting." Tito Milema started and looked round with pale astonishment in his face, as if at a sudden accusation, but Nello left him no time to feel at a loss for an answer. "Piero," said the barber, "you are the most extraor¬dinary compound of humors and fancies ever packed into a human skin. What trick wilt thou play with the fine visage of this young scholar to make it suit thy traitor ? Ask him rather to turn hi s eyes upward, and thou mayst make a Saint Sebastian of him that will draw troops of devout women or if thou art in a clas- sical vein, put myrtle about his curls and make him a young Bacchus, or say rather a Phcebus Apollo, for his face is as warm and bright as a summer morning. It made me his friend in the space of a credo.— "Ay, Nello," said the painter, speaking with abrupt pauses, "and if thy tongue can leave off its everlasting chirping long enough for thy understanding to con¬sider the matter, thou mayst see that thou hast just shown the reason why the face of Messere will suit my traitor. A perfect traitor should have a face which vice can write no marks on —lips that will lie with a dimpled smile — eyes of such agate-like brightness and depth that no infamy can dull them—cheeks that will rise from a murder and not look haggard. I say not this young man is a traitor. I mean, he has a face that would make him the more perfect traitor if he had the heart of one, which is saying neither more nor less than that he has a beautiful face, informed with rich young blood, that will be nourished enough by food, and keep its rich color without much help of virtue. He may have the heart of a Nero along with it. I aver nothing to the contrary. Ask Domenica there if lapidaries can always tell a gem by sight alone." - GEORGE ELIOT, Romola. SUGGESTIONS.- What description-motive is used in this model? Does each speaker assign a different fundamental quality to the person described? Are the speakers portraying a person who is present? Minor devices used. allusions ; analogies. A. EXAMPLE FOR ANALYSIS. He then led me to the highest pinnacle of the rock, and placed me on the top of it. Cast th3t eyes eastward, said he, and tell me what thou seest. I see, said I, a huge valley and a prodigious tide of water rolling through it. The valley that thou seest, said he, is the vale of misery, and the tide of water that thou seest is part of the great tide of eternity. What is the reason, said I, that the tide I see rises out of a thick mist at one• end, and again loses itself in a thick mist at the other ? What thou see'st, says he, is that portion of eternity which is called time, measured out by the sun, and reaching from the beginning of the world to its consum¬mation. Examine now, said he, this sea that is thus bounded with darkness at both ends, and tell me what thou discoverest in it. I see a bridge, said I, standing in the midst of the tide. The bridge thou seest, said he, is human life ; consider it attentively. —JOSEPH ADDISON, The Vision of Mirzah. SUGGESTIONS.—In this example of description by the use of dialogue, what descriptidn-motive is used? What is the funda¬mental quality of the picture ? Show that this quotation contains allegory.